ECHR ruling: Georgia violated rights of protesters and journalists with CCWs
The European Court of Human Rights delivered a landmark ruling on December 11, 2025 regarding Georgian police’s use of force and crowd-control weapons to disperse a mass protest outside of the Georgian Parliament in June 2019. The Court ruled in the case Tsaava and Others v. Georgia, that 24 of the 26 complainants – a mix of demonstrators and journalists – had been subject to inhuman or degrading treatment and that Georgian authorities had failed to conduct a proper investigation.
The Court’s decision is a significant victory not only because it was an unanimous decision but because of its further guidance for the regulation of rubber bullets. The judgment found that there were three violations of the European Convention on Human Rights’ Article 3 on prohibition of torture. The first was the disproportionate and unnecessary use of force. In particular, it pointed to the use of rubber bullets without previous warning and them being used at close range which resulted in severe injuries including permanent loss of eye sight. The second referred to the failure for effective investigations where Georgian authorities have yet to identify officers who used or ordered excessive force. More than five years after the incident, police investigations are still ongoing without results.
Most importantly, in line with what INCLO members suggested, the Court developed the principles that follow from its case law and should govern the use of KIPs. They include the requirement that KIPs be used only as a last resort, in a targeted manner, and multiple projectiles and projectiles containing metal should not be used. The use of KIPs should be preceded by a warning. The law enforcement personnel in charge of the use of KIPs should be properly trained, including on the harms to human health, and be subject to a clear line of command and control. Georgian law was found to have been deficient on all these accounts, which was a separate violation of Article 3.
Even though the Court acknowledged that the authorities could have some grounds to disperse the demonstration, it issued general measures recommending that Georgia reform its legal and regulatory framework governing the use of rubber bullets.
Nine INCLO members submitted a third-party intervention based on the extensive work INCLO has done on the health and human rights impacts of crowd-control weapons and the publication of Lethal in Disguise. The publication includes analysis and recommendations specifically on rubber bullets – more broadly called kinetic impact projectiles -, tear gas and water cannons. Both the INCLO submission, as well as Lethal in Disguise were cited in the ruling.
INCLO celebrates the Court’s decision and recognizes it as an important precedent regarding the disproportionate and punitive use of crowd-control weapons on peaceful demonstrators, and its impact on the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of speech. Its ruling is relevant to the global discussion regarding the proper management of protests and the use of crowd control weapons, setting a standard for the need to have in place regulations that ensure an appropriate use of these weapons and the need for accountability and transparency when violations occur.